


Date Preparations

by CeruleanMusings



Series: The Loudest Whisper [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Book 2: Earth, Earthbender OC, Female Friendship, Gen, Hair Brushing, Makeup, Not Beta Read, POV Third Person OC, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:56:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24463135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeruleanMusings/pseuds/CeruleanMusings
Summary: Jin wrung her hands together, pulling her lower lip into her mouth. “So? …What do you think?”I think you look like you were trapped in a bad with a cat-owl!But Michi couldn’t say that, not on such an important night, not when nerves radiated off Jin like the lapping wake on Lake Logai. Still, she couldn’t let Jin walk out with her hair like…like that. Forget the cat owl, she looked as if she’d been on the receiving end of a spark rock jab and it escaped through her head! So she shifted her face from reflecting shocked to a wincing distaste. Curling her lip, she lifted her hand and shook it from side to side.Jin’s shoulders dropped with her heaving sigh. “I thought so. My mom thought I looked nice.”Yes, well, her mother wouldn’t style know from a bar of soap but that was neither here nor there.orMichi helps Jin get ready for her date with Lee/Zuko
Relationships: Jin (Avatar) & Original Female Character
Series: The Loudest Whisper [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1762852
Comments: 8
Kudos: 5





	Date Preparations

Jin wrung her hands together, pulling her lower lip into her mouth. “So? …What do you think?”

_I think you look like you were trapped in a bad with a cat-owl!_

But Michi couldn’t say that, not on such an important night, not when nerves radiated off Jin like the lapping wake on Lake Logai. Still, she couldn’t let Jin walk out with her hair like…like _that_. Forget the cat owl, she looked as if she’d been on the receiving end of a spark rock jab and it escaped through her head! So she shifted her face from reflecting shocked to a wincing distaste. Curling her lip, she lifted her hand and shook it from side to side.

Jin’s shoulders dropped with her heaving sigh. “I thought so. My mom thought I looked _nice.”_

Yes, well, her mother wouldn’t style know from a bar of soap but that was neither here nor there.

Clicking her tongue, Michi carefully set aside the scroll of parchment she’d been drawing on and rubbed her charcoal stained hands together, surveying the mass of hair…somehow still attached to Jin’s head.

Coils and curls stuck out one way, gravity-defying strands stuck this way and that. She really did a number on herself. Michi briefly wondered if she’d let her siblings help her; little Jiang had Jin wrapped around her finger. And then Ju-Long wouldn’t want to be left out even if styling hair was decidedly a _girly_ thing to do.

“Do you think Lee would like it?”

Eyes widening, Michi pressed her lips together into a line and clasped her hands together. Rolling her eyes, Jin chuckled. “Alright, alright, I get it. Can you help me? Please?” When Michi lifted her hand and made a snipping motion, Jin’s smile immediately dropped and she shook her head. “You’re not funny, Mimi”

Grinning, Michi pointed to a seat nearby and went into the kitchen to find the tub. Her father gave it the most use, soaking his aching feet after being up and about all day. Speaking of which, Michi glanced at the sun dial that sat on the window sill nearby. Her mouth twisted to the side. Her father should’ve been home about an hour ago. She reached forward and pumped the handle on the pipe until water started to flow out. With a flick of her wrist, she bended out the dirt and sediment that dropped to the bottom of the tub and shot it out the window. Her held breath eased a few seconds later when the Dai Li didn’t come bursting through her door.

“I’m going to take him to that restaurant in the middle ring,” Jin said when Michi shuffled back into the living room, fifteen short steps from the attached kitchen. She set the tub down on the small table beside the couch that Jin lay on, her laced fingers resting on her stomach. “I haven’t been there in a while. I saved up for it, you know. I want everything to be perfect.”

Michi hummed as she removed the ribbon holding Jin’s hair up. She set it aside and gathered up her hair, her fingers sliding through whatever grease it was that she had applied and set it in the water. Immediately a film rose to the surface. Picking up a nearby comb, Michi began to carefully separate her hair. It wasn’t a royal combing fit for a princess but Jin may as well be one on this special night.

“I still can’t believe he said yes! Well, it was his uncle, but still! I went though so much tea…”

Michi’s lips curled upwards. Yes, looking back on it now, tackling every flavor and type of tea Pao’s offered just to put Jin within the vicinity of Lee was…an idea. But that was Jin; once her mind was on something it would take a herd of elephant mandrills to sway her course. And a few silver pieces to foot the bill. She did have to hand it to him, though, he and his uncle did know how to make a mean cup of tea.

Initially she continued to return for Jin’s sake, to watch and observe and wait to be needed. That focus shifted, however, the minute she picked up on Lee’s vibrations. It was a slow, almost undetectable, but Michi caught it. More like a steady pulse, a practiced heartbeat than an unleashed natural energy. A little too rhythmic. But it was a deep, aching pulse, one she felt in her bones.

And so she sat and sipped and watched and waited. For what, she wasn’t sure, but there was just something about him. And not in the golden way that Jin found him, like he was bathed in their kingdom’s infamous sunsets.

“Better?” Jin’s voice yanked Michi out of her thoughts. Blinking, she shook her head and dropped her hands from the ponytail she’d put into Jin’s hair. Holding up a finger, she signaled for Jin to wait as she went to retrieve a gold and green painted wooden box tucked into a corner, resting on the floor right beneath a hanging painting of a dark haired woman with kind, gray eyes. Pausing for a moment to straighten the image of her mother, she picked up the box and carefully opened it.

A row of small jars holding different colored powers stared back at her. She walked her fingers against the tops until she found a soft red she was looking for. Removing it, she set the box back and hurried back to Jin who still kneeled on the floor, a position she took on and held still since her hair was dried.

Removing the cap, Michi tapped the pad of her finger against the loose powder and carefully spread it across Jin’s cheekbones, applying a thin but natural-looking layer. Leaning back, Michi surveyed her, and then beamed, flashing a thumbs-up.

“Great!” Flinging herself forward, Jin wrapped her arms around Michi’s neck and gave her a squeeze. “Thank you so much, Mimi, I owe you one!” she said and placed a kiss on her cheek.

Cupping Jin’s cheeks, Michi lifted her face until they were eye to eye and mouthed, “Have fun!”

Jin dashed away as the last rays of sunshine dipped beyond the horizon and a blanket of darkness began to settle in. Michi frowned, sighed, and brushed her hands against the legs of her pants. Picking up her abandoned drawing, she ripped a corner off the parchment and scribbled a note, leaving it in a place she knew her father would see it whenever he returned.

Then he counted to twenty, slid open the front door, and closed it behind her. Out on the small porch she slipped her feet into her shoes and spotted Jin’s quickly growing smaller up ahead. 

Michi set her jaw. _Good._ That was enough distance between them. Footsteps light and careful, she blended into the shadows as she retraced her friend’s steps, keeping an eye on her. Like always.


End file.
